Is Japan preparing to certify cars with no steering wheel?
Published . Updated . The World Just Opened Its Doors To Robotaxi.
What is the short answer?
Nikkei reported on November 2, 2026 that Japan's transport ministry is considering uniform certification, aimed at December, for some cars with no steering wheel. The report covers Level 4 and Level 5 vehicles, including ones with no brake pedal, and it describes a standards change under consideration. It is not a permit for a robotaxi service. The same week, Tesla asked an Australian Senate inquiry to support driverless trials on public roads in 2027, and the Dutch vehicle authority approved a rename of Tesla's supervised system to Tesla Assisted Driving while leaving the driver responsible. The episode said supervised miles had passed 17 billion. A mileage total is not unsupervised service.
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What did the episode report?
Each line is a news item stored with this episode. The date is the day the video was published. Timing words in a line are copied from the episode.
Nikkei reported on November 2, 2026 that Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is considering uniform certification, under revised safety standards it aims to apply from December, for Level 4 and Level 5 vehicles that do not need a driver. The vehicles covered include ones with no steering wheel and no brake pedal. Nikkei said these vehicles had been certified one by one, and that the change is meant to support mass production of autonomous taxis. Nikkei Asia's November 3 report described the same effort as a revision under consideration. A proposal to change certification rules is not permission to operate a robotaxi.
techAU reported Tesla's Submission 258 to the Senate Select Committee on Productivity in Australia, dated October 16, 2026. The submission asks the Commonwealth to support an autonomous-vehicle trial in 2027, with permits for trials on public roads until a national framework is in place, and to accelerate the proposed Autonomous Vehicle Safety Law from what Tesla calls an expected 2029 start to 2027. Tesla says bringing that law forward by two years would unlock more than A$10 billion in benefits, citing modelling by the Autonomous Vehicle Association of Australia, and cites federal research estimating up to 800 lives saved a year at full adoption. techAU said neither study was attached to the submission. The submission describes Full Self-Driving (Supervised) as a Level 2 system that still requires the driver to control the vehicle. The ask is for a future trial. It is not approval to run a car with no driver.
Support an autonomous vehicle trial in 2027, working with industry to grant permits to unlock AV trials on public roads until such time that the national regulatory framework for AVs is in place.
Source: techAU, quoting Tesla Submission 258Play this moment on YouTube
On November 3, 2026, the Dutch vehicle authority RDW said it had approved changes Tesla requested to FSD Supervised. The in-car name becomes Tesla Assisted Driving. RDW said the rename does not change how the system works: it remains driver assistance, and the driver remains responsible. The driver-set speed margin, previously up to 50% over the limit, is now capped at 10%, and it defaults to 0% when the car starts. RDW said it informed the nine countries that accept the approval: Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. RDW said approval for the whole European Union is still underway and that it does not comment on those talks.
The episode said Tesla's supervised FSD fleet had passed 17 billion miles. Tesla's FSD (Supervised) safety page is the company's counter of miles driven with the system engaged, and the page describes a supervised system. This note does not print a live reading from that counter. Supervised miles are not unsupervised robotaxi rides.
Source: Tesla FSD (Supervised) safety pagePlay this moment on YouTube
The episode included a forecast that Cybercab deployment could pass 500 vehicles by year-end and might reach 1,000 or 2,000, and it treated regulation as the main constraint. Those vehicle counts are a forecast from the episode. They are not a production target in a Tesla filing or on an earnings call.
From the show discussion
These lines restate points from the show discussion. They are not a Brighter Finance forecast, and they are not investment advice.
- The discussion argued that a standards proposal is not permission to operate a robotaxi.
- The discussion argued that a request for a 2027 trial is not approval to run a car with no driver.
- The discussion argued that a new name for a driver-assistance system does not remove the person responsible for driving.
- The discussion argued that a supervised mileage total is not a count of unsupervised rides.
- The discussion argued that a deployment forecast on the episode is not a company production target.
Where is the video?
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